Popular food combinations made from flat bread have included crepes, tortillas and roll ups. All of these food combinations include a flat bread and various different fillings. Flat breads may be produced by rolling dough to a thin sheet and then cooking the flattened dough. Alternatively, a dough ball may be squeezed flat by pressing the ball under such high pressure that the ball is converted to a flat sheet of dough. U.S. Pat. No. 3,880,064 to M. N. Martinez and U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,025 to M. G. Martinez proposed household electrically-heated appliances for making tortillas provided with manually-operable mechanisms for squeezing balls of dough into flat sheets which are heated by the appliances. Both of these patents proposed to partially cook a flat sheet between the press plates used to squeeze the dough flat and thereafter complete the cooking of the flat sheet. The M. G. Martinez U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,025 tortilla maker also included a flat griddle plate located on top of the appliance for completing the cooking of a tortilla.
Considerable pressure must be exerted against the dough to flatten it into a flat sheet. The M. N. Martinez U.S. Pat. No. 3,880,064 relies on pivoted, manually-operated levers to exert the necessary pressure. The levers extend in front of the appliance housing. The user presses down on a lever which can cause the appliance to pivot about its lower front edge. This problem is recognized in the patent, which suggests that the appliance can be clamped to a counter or table top. This problem is avoided by the appliance disclosed in the M. G. Martinez U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,025 because the lower pressure plate is pivoted upwardly toward another pressure plate which is at an angle to horizontal. The lever mechanism disclosed in the M. G. Martinez U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,025, to pivot the lower plate upwardly is relatively complex and expensive. In addition, the mechanism is located generally in front of the appliance, which makes it awkward to use the appliance. There is also a possibility of a dough ball sliding down the lower press plate as it pivots upwardly at an angle to horizontal. Another problem encountered with the prior appliances is that they require a substantial amount of counter space to accommodate the lever systems employed by them.
Flat bread foods are becoming increasingly popular and there is need for a satisfactory, relatively inexpensive and compact flat bread maker which can be used to flatten a mass of dough and cook the flattened dough.